Mostly Inside!

Hi, everyone!

It’s been over a week since we had a temperature above freezing!  The snow is too cold and dry to make a snow beast, so I’ve mostly had inside adventures! Two weeks ago, Grandma and Grandpa took me and Uncle Steven’s family to a members-only event at the Rochester Museum and Science Center.  It was the opening of a new show in the planetarium about dinosaurs!  There were three showings that night, and we went to the middle one.  I held our place at the front of the line while James and Thomas looked at the displays in the lobby.  When we got into the planetarium, James and Thomas picked the very best seats for watching the show!  At the beginning of the show, the planetarium director brought up the original Zeiss planetarium.  That’s a mechanical projector that can show the movements of stars and planets on the domed ceiling and it’s nicknamed Carl.  Now there is a digital projection system, instead, but Carl gets introduced at the beginning of every show.

The new show, Dinosaurs at Dusk, is about flying dinosaurs and has lots of different creations people use to fly, too.  I liked the show!  I learned about some kinds of dinosaurs I didn’t know about before.  I made sure to say goodbye to Carl before I left!

The next Sunday, it was really cold when I got up!  Then, overnight, we got a lot of snow!  It was the first time we had enough snow that the plowing contractor showed up to plow out the driveway!  I stayed inside all day!  Grandma finished the Mt. Rainer jigsaw puzzle she got for Christmas from Uncle David’s family.  Since she had to switch the last piece with another piece to make all the pieces fit, she decided to number the backs of the pieces.  I helped!

The next day, it was still cold but sunny.  Grandma and Grandpa got out to clear snow off the edges of the roof so melt water could run off.  The snow was so deep that I was glad Grandma made a path for me in it!  I got to play in the snow cave under the picnic table.  Then I helped brush the snow off Grandpa’s car.

The next day, Grandma decided it was time to pack the boxes of Ground Hog Day cookies.  She brought back the cookies that had been stored at Uncle Steven’s house.  I helped get all the storage boxes open and folded the mailing boxes.  Grandma decided to pack one big box to go to Okinawa and two smaller boxes to go to the Air Force Academy.  We made seven lines of cookies to divide the cookies among the three boxes, three lines for the big box and two lines for each of the smaller boxes.  We filled all three boxes to the top!  I helped put in air pillows and tape the boxes closed.  The big box went into the mail right away and the two smaller boxes fit in our freezer.

Last Saturday, it was 0 degrees F. again when I got up! Grandma told me it was warming up fast, because it had been -7 degrees F. when she got up!  Sunday afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa took me out to the bay.  After all the cold weather, I wasn’t surprised that the bay was frozen over.  It was snowy and cold, so I didn’t spend much time outside!

Today, I helped Grandma take the rest of the Ground Hog Day cookies to the post office.  The postal clerk told me they would get to their destination next Monday.  Even if it takes an extra day, the Air Force Academy cadets will still have them in time for Ground Hog Day!

I’ve been practicing for Ground Hog Day, too!  Today, it was sunny, so it was easy to see my shadow.  I’ll let you know next time I write whether I see it next Wednesday, when it’s really Ground Hog Day!

Love,

Lion-san